Retail stores commonly package a customer's purchases in thin plastic bags. These bags are normally formed with apertures in upper end portion thereof to define a pair of handles which permit the customer to carry his purchases. Once the bags are emptied, it is not uncommon for an individual to store these bags for re-use. To the knowledge of the inventor, no convenient device has been made commercially available for storing the bags in compact form and a common practice is simply to stuff the bags into one another and leave the bundled bags in a cupboard or the like. The bags ultimately take up excessive space and individual bags cannot be conveniently retrieved.
A variety of bag storage or handling devices are known. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,380,579 and 3,552,697 to Pinto, there are described devices which involve two horizontal hanging rods from which gusseted bags pre-formed with clearance holes for receipt of the rods can be suspended in bulk and an individual bag opened and supported for receipt of groceries or the like. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,604 to Popper there is described a trash bag holder which opens and closes a single trash bag in response to the opening and closing of a cupboard door on which the device is mounted. U.S. Pat. No. 2,696,325 to Beier describes a holder in which bags are retained by a spring mechanism and in which pull tabs attached to the bottoms of the bags protrude through an opening associated with the holder to permit withdrawal of the bags individually. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,527,693 to Membrino and 4,453,649 to Origuchi describe dispensers for bags formed in continuous rolls or stacks which are appropriate for initial dispensing of bags but do not lend themselves conveniently to reuse of bags. Although all such prior patents describe devices which store, handle or dispense bags, none provides a convenient mechanism for storing and dispensing for re-use plastic or other bags of the type commonly provided by retail stores.